Where have all the court reporters gone?

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Courts in less populated areas of Wisconsin are struggling to find qualified court reporters, and the problem may only get worse as baby boomers retire and fewer new workers choose the profession.

“I don’t know if it’s a shortage quite yet, but we’re experiencing difficulties covering some courts,” says A. John Voelker, director of state courts for the Wisconsin Court System in Madison. “In three of the 72 counties in our state — Grant, Bayfield, and St. Croix — we’re using digital audio recording to take the record because we didn’t have a reliable stenographic court reporter who met our standards apply for the job.”

Patrick Brummond is one of the district court administrators whose job is to ensure court reporter coverage. He oversees the 7th Judicial Administrative District in La Crosse, which spans from Pierce County in the north to the Illinois border in the south and as far east as Iowa County.

“For us, it’s a struggle at least weekly to make sure we have enough court reporters in the right places,” he says. “When someone is sick or taking vacation, I have limited ability to cover those illnesses or vacations. In the past, we’ve had a number of freelance reporters we’ve been able to call. But those resources aren’t there.”

There have even been times when Brummond simply couldn’t arrange for coverage in all his courtrooms. “Sometimes judges had to cancel their calendar,” he says. “Sometimes judges tape recorded in an emergency mode, and those aren’t the highest quality, but we’re dealing with an emergency situation. Sometimes we’ve coordinated the calendars between two judges. All of those situations aren’t good.”

Other districts have also experienced shortages, but they haven’t been forced to resort to digital electronic reporters for any judges on a full-time basis.

“We’ve been able to find qualified applicants to fill our official shifts,” says J. Mac Davis, chief judge of the 3rd Administrative District in Waukesha. “But when it comes to filling in for things like vacations and sick days, the problem has been more noticeable.”

Several factors are driving the shortage. One is the 1996 federal legislation requiring TV broadcasters to begin phasing in closed captioning in the late 1990s.

“For a while, there was a raid on the existing court reporter pool, taking from the judicial reporting world and drawing to the captioning world,” says Robert Gramann, owner and operator of Gramann Court Reporting in Milwaukee. “Now I don’t think court reporters are being drawn from the judicial reporting world, but there are kids coming right out of school going right into captioning.”

In addition, there’s been a drop in the number of students graduating from court reporting schools. “Some schools had stopped offering court reporting because the numbers weren’t high enough,” says Voelker. “Also, we know a high percentage of students who go into court reporting drop out before they graduate. We don’t have the same employment pool we had a few years ago.”

Another factor that’s affecting not just the Wisconsin court system but also the entire U.S. business world is the aging of the workforce — a trend that will only continue.

“We know that in the next 10 years, the court reporting profession will experience a number of people leaving due to baby boomers’ retiring,” says Voelker. “While we feel the stresses now, over the next 10 years we have the potential of feeling them even more so.”

To combat the problem, Voelker has been touring the state to get feedback from court reporters and judges. As a result, he’s implemented changes to make the courts more attractive employers.

“When court reporters come into our system, we give them credit for years of service, which determines their compensation,” explains Voelker. “We used to cap that at 10 years, but we heard from court reporters that might put us at a disadvantage. Within the last year, I’ve bumped that up to 20 years so they’ll start at a higher pay than they might have under the old cap.”

Court reporting firms are also working to attract new recruits.

“In the past, many court reporters were independent contractors,” says Brenda Ray, president and owner of Ray Reporting in Milwaukee. More companies are now following Ray’s lead by classifying their reporters as employees.

“More firms are also handing out benefits like 401ks and health insurance,” she says.

Despite concerns that the problem will only worsen, Ray isn’t worried. “People will start seeing there’s a shortage and decide to go into court reporting,” she says. “Who wants to go to school and not have a job? The perfect situation is getting out of school and knowing you have a job.”